????? Pride Month is over but the work is not ???????????????????
Now that Pride Month is over, take a beat to consider the ways your engagement (or lack thereof) with queerness and queer communities have impacted those around you.
Have you learned something new? Or, have you remained willfully ignorant about queer liberation?
Have you moved towards or away from queer solidarity; recognizing that a passive stance on progressive topics is actually an act of regression?
How have you mobilized whatever it is that you have -- privilege, authority, agency, an audience, education, wealth, access to digital technology, etc. -- to support the lives of queer folks who continue to be individually and systemically oppressed?
I ask these questions rhetorically with the hope that more people than not will be able to proudly reflect on the positive impact they’ve had this month to stand with queer liberation.?
The month is over but the work is not.
As we know, the first Pride was not a celebration at all but a collection of riots and uprisings at Stonewall . The work of Pride is honoring the brave activists who came before us, celebrating how far we’ve come, and continuing to fight for a more just tomorrow. Here are a few ways you might consider continuing the work of Pride throughout the rest of the year:?
1. Check On Queer Colleagues (especially QTBIPOC)
While Pride Month represents a month-long celebration and heightened awareness for queer folks and experiences, it can also be the most draining and exhaustive thirty days for Queer and/or Trans Black, Indigenous, People of Color (QTBIPOC).
Pride, a month that espouses universal inclusion and uplifts the reimagination of societal norms, has historically been and continues to be incredibly white-washed. Many queer folks who also hold racially minoritizing identities are left out of the celebration and still have to combat the homophobia and anti-queerness that runs rampant in many communities of color.
Remember to hold your QTBIPOC colleagues gently and give them time and space to recover after juggling the intersections of race and queerness during another month that has potentially ignored their existence.
QTBIPOC folks often have to step up to create spaces for themselves and others that are truly inclusive and educational which represents a labor that is usually un/under-compensated.
If your race and/or sexual identity affords you societal privilege, it is your turn to step up and create dynamic and affirming spaces to continue healthy dialogue modeled after the work of your QTBIPOC colleagues and friends. Give us a break and a chance to rest.?
2. Be Active During Other Awareness Months
Queer folks exist in every community.
During February, learn about how queer Black folks have shaped so much of Black culture while having to hide in the shadows or on the fringes of their communities. Truly consider the synergistic marginalization of queer Black folks feeling too Black for queer spaces and too queer for Black spaces.
During March, examine the impact of queer women activists who have been apart of every major progressive movement in America and around the world.
The brilliance of our multiple salient identities is that they all exist within us and intersect in various ways to inform how we perceive the world and are perceived by society and its members.
Queer celebration and queer solidarity must manifest outside of the bounds of Pride month.
Remember to ask yourself where the queer folks in every other community are, where they’ve been placed, or where they’re hiding -- because I can promise you, they exist.
3. Keep Talking About Pronouns… but Dig Deeper
I sometimes get frustrated by the complexities of the queer experience being reduced to conversations (usually had by straight people) about bathrooms and pronouns... and that's it.
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Queer liberation is so much more than those two topics. At the same time, I acknowledge that my privileged identities have given me the ability to feel safe within the gender binary norms that are currently perpetuated.
My cis-ness is not threatened by the perpetuation of transphobic ideology around pronoun-use and gendered bathrooms. Therefore, I commit to learning, unlearning, and being empathetic to experiences that are not my own.
May we (myself included) continue to have the tough conversations about pronouns that will create a more habitable world for trans and non-binary folks while also challenging ourselves to dig deeper throughout the year and introduce new topics that also support the liberation of queer peoples.
For example, here are talking points that deserve more airtime regarding the queer experience:
These last two are a little bonus for the straights ??
4. Do Something
If you truly want to commit to continuing the work of queer solidarity and queer liberation, it is crucial to move from reflection to action.
In other words, DO SOMETHING!
You can read this article a thousand times and watch every episode of Pose , but at the end of the day, what are you doing?
Who are you helping or educating besides yourself?
The work of Pride month is continued throughout the year by an army of activists having informed conversations with people in their circle, voting for queer affirming legislation, and mobilizing more individuals to act.
Hopefully you’ve taken some time this month to strategize on how you can get more deeply involved in the local, national, and global conversations about LGBTQIA+ rights.
5. Give Something Up
The old phrases “put your money where your mouth is” or “don’t talk about it, be about it” are exactly what I mean.
Give something up on behalf of the queer community EVERY. SINGLE. MONTH.
Time, energy, attention, your reputation, your audience, your voice, your airtime in a meeting, your patronage, your affirmation, etc. can all be as valuable as your money.
Whether you’re donating to a cause, marching in a rally, or pausing a meeting to verbally acknowledge who is and is not represented, it is important.?
In your efforts towards queer solidarity, commit to anti-racism. All justice work is interconnected and our collective liberation is dependent on the ways we uplift all people with minoritized identities. May we join forces and fully realize the magic of our united power! ???????????????????
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JAKE Small (www.imjakesmall.com ) is a Career Educator & Educational Consultant. Professionally, he focuses on workplace equity, leadership development, and career coaching. His academic focus is on building equity initiatives in the college context which supplements his lived experiences as a student affairs practitioner. His most recent peer-reviewed publication is titled "Reimagining an Antiracist Career Center'' (Small, 2021) which he uses to problematize the cultural norms associated with higher education. Request services on his LinkedIn page?HERE .